Starwalker
by PK Rockin Ness
Summary: Sometimes working hard for what you want can really pay off, in more ways than is apparent and obvious.


Sometimes in life, people treat their possessions like they don't mean a single thing, or like they're unimportant, no matter how expensive they may be. I've always noticed this to be true among a few of my friends, like the boys I hang out with in our tree house about a block away from my home. Their parents sometimes buy them a new video game console that costs hundreds of dollars and then, the next week, they already want something new and have abandoned the console their parents worked hard to get for them! I always thought it was a little bit selfish, but it's not my life to live, either. I figure, it's just how they were raised. If you're raised given everything you want, you won't really care much for anything people give you.

My parents raised me a little bit differently than to be so ungrateful, and y'know, I'm glad! It's a simple moral, really, to work hard for what you want, and that working attitude starts early on in childhood. My family never was rich, or even middle-class, contrary to what quite a few people seem to believe, so my parents never were able to afford extra things for me like video games and game consoles. I never really minded though, truthfully, because it's taught me a lot of really important things in life, like compassion and understanding for those around me. For everything my family and I went through because of our lack of money, I think it was worth it in the end!

The point of this whole story I'm putting together is to show you, my readers, that when you work hard for something, you end up treasuring it and treating it with care, unlike something you didn't work for. So, I'll continue onward now with this miniature tale and I hope you'll find yourself working just a little bit harder after, too. It'd mean a lot to me if you did, honestly. I'd feel really happy to know I helped change people's attitudes with my story!

Right, so…

Let's start off at the beginning, which takes place here in my hometown of Onett. At the time I was only about ten years old and my family was in even worse shape money-wise than it is now. My dad was working a pretty low-end job, flippin' burgers at the hamburger joint across town, 'Lil'Kings', making minimum wage. Now, everyone knows minimum wage just doesn't pay the bills, so it was really difficult for us to make ends' meet every month. There were even a few times when we had to borrow money from the next door neighbors, which we promptly paid back as soon as possible; though they often say we didn't.

It was pretty rough times, back then, so I didn't ask my parents for anything more than what I absolutely needed, like when we were running low on hygienic products and important stuff like that. It was just sort of a moral rule I'd been raised with; don't ask for extras when you can barely afford the necessities'.

Of course, being human and all, there were times I had cravings for a few of those aforementioned 'extras', which usually ended up being something sugary to satisfy my ever so ravenous sweet tooth. One of those times was when I was walking home at around 2:30 in the afternoon from the nearby elementary school I attended; Onett Elementary. Passing by the local mini-mart, which was only a short five minute walk away from my house, my stomach gave a rather loud and irritable growl, signaling to me that it'd be a good time to grab a snack. Of course, since the store was right there within view, I decided it'd be a good idea to drop by and grab a small snack to hold myself over until dinner time at 6 PM.

Now, you might be wondering how I would be able to buy anything since we were so poor and could barely afford anything as it was! Well…  
Each and every month, I would get a small allowance of ten dollars that my parents set aside just for me, since they thought it would be unfair to deprive me of things entirely. They were also always going on about, "It's important that children learn how to manage and handle money just like adults!" Essentially, they wanted me to be able to have things from time to time while also learning how to budget, since it'd be a useful skill as an adult.

With this small allowance, I was able to buy things whenever I wanted until I ran out of money. Of course, I'd long since learned that it was a good idea to spread out my usage of this allowance, otherwise I wouldn't be able to buy treats when I really craved them the most. Ten dollars might not seem like a lot, but I always seemed to make it last all month, even with spending it on candy from time to time! Careful budgeting really can make a world of difference sometimes!

But anyway, back on topic.

Pockets full of jangling quarters, I opened the door to the plain, brownish-red little mini-mart and wandered inside, immediately making my way over to the far right side of the store, which was the candy section. There were two large isles with every shelf stuffed full of delicious, colorful candies of all shapes and sizes imaginable.  
Jawbreakers, pixie sticks, gummy worms, chocolate bars and even small boxes of lollipops and other hard candies all lined the insides of the shelves, neatly organized into sections. The walls behind the shelves had been painted a plain white color, making the colors of the candies stick out just a little bit more to the potential buyers who wandered by. I searched about for a few minutes from one end of the isle to the next and, after a small mental debate, picked out a simple 'Hershel's' brand chocolate bar as my treat of the day.

It was hard to resist picking out more of the ever-so-delicious looking candies, seeing how hungry I was and whatnot, but as hard as it was, I tore myself away from the isles and wandered over to the silver-ish front counter to pay. As I was rummaging through my pockets to pull out the fifty cents needed to buy the candy bar, I glanced off to the other side of the store where the sporting section was. It was then that something interesting caught my attention there.

I quickly pulled out and dropped the 50 cents on the counter and took my chocolate bar, pocketing it to eat after I left the store. Somewhat curiously, then, I wandered over to the aforementioned section and stood directly in front of what had caught my attention. It turned out, what I'd spotted from the front counter were a pair of tennis shoes, on display on a clear pedestal that was set up at the front of the isle.  
The tops of the shoes were a bright red, much like my baseball cap, and had an odd, darker red spiral design that was stitched on either side all the way to the back of the shoe, where they met and laced together somewhat like an odd DNA symbol. Lifting the shoes up to examine them better, I noted the bottoms of the shoes were white and had a similar spiral design etched along the sole. The material they were made with seemed to be almost the same as a pair of jeans, judging by the texture as I ran my fingers over them.

Glancing up at the large white sign located above the pedestal, I saw that they were made by the famous Eagleland brand name 'Starwalker', which was a company known to make some of the most comfortable, durable and long-lasting shoes on the market. I'd often seen advertisements for their shoes on television, but the prices usually varied between twenty dollars all the way up to five hundred. I'd even heard some of the most famous athletes from all over the world would only run using Starwalker brand shoes, because they were that comfortable during races and equally durable unlike any other shoe! What a find, seeing these ever-so-famous shoes in such a small mini-mart!

Looking back now, I guess it's kind of silly to think that out of all the things I could've spotted in the store, I'd flock to a pair of shoes and not something cool like the new flashing yo-yos they'd gotten in. Truth be told, though, the real reason they caught my eye in the first place was because my current pair of shoes were full of holes and, quite frankly, falling apart at the seams.  
Giving the shoes one last brush with my thumbs, I turned over the price tag, which was attached to a small white loop at the heel-end of the right shoe. I wanted to see if, by chance, I'd be able to afford it come next month's allowance, since this really was an amazing chance to have something of fairly high quality for a change. I was absolutely shocked, though, when I saw the price; $179.99! It would take me well over a year of saving up all my allowances to buy them at that price! I knew Starwalker brand shoes were expensive sometimes, but these ones weren't even all that elaborate like the others I'd seen on TV!

I guess for most people they probably would've just shook their head and left the store without a second thought after seeing such a ridiculous price on a pair of rather plain shoes. I, on the other hand, almost saw it as a kind of test; a test to prove to myself that, if I worked hard, I could get something even as expensive as those darned tennis shoes. You could call it a kid's logic, but I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it if I set my mind to it. It was then and there that I came up with a plan: one that I was sure would work if I put my heart and soul into it and believed in myself.


End file.
